Hughton hopes Albion hit the ground running after international break

Chris Hughton hopes Albion will hit the ground running when they return to action against Leicester on Saturday.

The Seagulls have not played since their 2-0 FA Cup quarter-final defeat to Manchester United on March 17 and six members of the squad were then away on international duty, while the rest of the squad went on a warm weather training camp.

Hughton said: "We had six players away and their participation in the games was quite good for us.

"Shane (Duffy) had the one game, Davy Propper the two games but predominantly played in one, (Jose) Izquierdo, Maty Ryan and the two Israeli lads (Tomer Hemed and Beram Kayal) were involved in the one game.

"From that aspect, it was good. We took the rest away for some warm weather training, which went down very well. We gave them a few days off at the end of that and then started again on Monday.

"We hope it's been a good time spent and you want to go into the next game hitting the ground running and we're fortunate we're only two weeks off the last game, where some are three weeks."

Left-back Gaetan Bong is fit to return to the squad after missing the Manchester United game and Hughton said a decision will be made on midfielder Dale Stephens, who has missed the last two games.

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